Fall Showers
by Toshirokun13
Summary: Just when Ichigo is about to sweep Toshiro away on a week-long trip a sudden snowstorm hits Seireitei and the strawberry is bothered by more than just the prospect of having his plans cancelled. IchiHitsu


**A/N: Okay so, funny story bout this here one-shot. This is actually my _very_ belated b-day present to xTKx. (Happy (late) Birthday~!) Sorry it took so long for me to get this up, but better late than never riiiiiight? XD (You have no idea how busy I've been getting ready for Thanksgiving break and all...) I wanted to try and write something light and fluffy and yet still have something actually happen and this is what resulted, hope you like it!  
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Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

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><p><strong>~ Fall Showers ~<strong>

"You do realize that we were supposed to leave in few hours right…?"

"Yes, I am aware of that fact, Ichigo." Toshiro replied causally.

"So don't you think it would be a good idea to you know, pack?" The strawberry replied as he walked over towards the young captain's desk where said captain was filling out paperwork faster than the strawberry had ever seen in the entire time the two had been dating.

"It's fine." Toshiro stated. "Packing won't take me that long and because of you dragging me out in the middle of no-where yesterday, I wasn't able to get anything accomplished, and as a result I'm even further behind with my paperwork than I was already." Toshiro took a deep breath before continuing. "How in the world you got me to agree to running off to who-knows-where with you for an _entire_ week still escapes me." The petite captain shook his head, resigned to the fact that he would be yet again pulled away from his duties because of his A.D.D. boyfriend. Yamamoto would surely have his head when he realized that Toshiro had mysteriously disappeared from Seireitei yet again.

"Toshiro, there's this really cool thing people do nowadays called taking a break, you should try it sometime." The strawberry laughed before receiving the mother of all death glares from his frosty boyfriend which only served to fuel his laughter even more. It wasn't long before the strawberry found himself clutching his stomach from said laughing fit. Once Ichigo had finally managed to compose himself to some degree, he walked over towards the large desk occupied by the smaller male. He really hadn't been kidding when he said he was way behind schedule. "You know… I bet if you ask Rangiku _realllly_ nice and explain the situation, she just might help you out a bit with all this… I mean she _is_ your lieutenant."

Toshiro scoffed loudly. "We all know that that won't happen; Rangiku avoids work like the plague. If you think that you can convince her then go ahead, but the entire time I've been her Captain the only times I've found her ever actually putting in genuine effort is when I've either been incapacitated and confined to the Fourth Division or away on a long-term mission."

"Yea well, she uh… she does… uhm…" Ichigo started, wracking his brain trying to think of something to say that would support his previous statement, but ended up just shrugging his shoulders in defeat.

"Exactly." Toshiro replied, before quickly returning his attention back towards the stacks of paperwork that continued to tower over him. _It's going to be a long night…_ he sighed mentally. It was nights like these that he dearly missed just being a lieutenant… sure they had duties, but they were nothing when compared with those of their Captain's.

Ichigo lent down to place a gentle kiss on his small boyfriend's pale cheek, yet the young captain's composure remained unchanged causing the strawberry to let out an audible sigh. "Comon Shirou…" Ichigo whispered into the other's ear as he moved his hands down to Toshiro's shoulders and began to massage the stressed boy's shoulders gently.

"Not an option, Ichigo. I still have the daily reports from the beginning of the week and that doesn't even include filling out all the paperwork for the missions that need to be detailed and then released to the appropriate personnel. There's just way too much to do…" The boy genius shook his head before letting out a particularly loud yawn.

"You're dead on your feet-"

"Not on my feet right now, genius." Toshiro countered, almost unconsciously.

"Ugh… you know what I mean." Ichigo whined and recognizing defeat he withdrew his arms to his sides and started walking back to the other side of the office, "And you think I'm impossible…" he groaned as the strawberry began walking towards the office door.

Toshiro's head instantly snapped up from the current hell that was his pile of paperwork. "Where are you going?"

"Well, I'm not wanted here so I was just gonna try and go pack some more… maybe make some dinner… I dunno, really." Ichigo replied, shrugging his shoulders.

The young captain's attention was instantly snatched away from the cluttered desk before him as he dropped his pen and looked straight ahead where the strawberry was still frozen by the door. Toshiro brought one of his hands to massage bridge of his nose, hoping to quell the migraine he had been fighting off for the past few hours before taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Ichigo… I know that you're just trying to help and I've been doing nothing but arguing with you and I know you think I do it just to be difficult, but I'm really not… It's just that the head captain has really been breathing down my neck lately about every little thing whether it's routine paperwork, missions, or other division duties and I don't even want get into it about my phantom lieutenant-"

Toshiro's rambling was cut off suddenly when he heard his boyfriend's sudden and sporadic laughter, the fit rather similar to the one he had had mere minutes before. "It's okay, Toshiro." The captain looked rather unconvinced at this statement. "I'm serious, it's fine." Toshiro remained unmoved so Ichigo walked back over from his previous place by the door to return to his boyfriend side. "Comon, why don't we just call it a night and I swear to you, I will find _someone_ who can convince Rangiku to work on some of this, even if I have to drag her in here myself and threaten to never bring her any beauty products back from Karakura ever again."

Toshiro remained rather skeptical, yet Ichigo seemed to have a knack for doing what most people felt was impossible, so what did he have to lose? "Fine…. You win, Ichigo." Toshiro took a small pause before finishing. "Just let me finish these last few reports on the division's financial status from this month, and I promise I'll take the rest of the night off. You know how bad Rangiku is with money, she would singlehandedly bankrupt the entire division in a matter of minutes."

Ichigo nodded, laughing at what he knew was true and couldn't help but grin with the knowledge of this small, yet very hard fought victory. Getting his workaholic boyfriend away from his paperwork was definitely one of the hardest battles and usually took the strawberry at least a few hours to slowly wear down his defenses enough so that he could worm the boy genius out of his office.

Toshiro returned to his work, but this time with a renewed vigor and the knowledge that he no longer had to worry about rushing to get as much of the paperwork finished before they were expected to leave later that night. Now, he could actually concentrate and take a deep breath every few minutes.

Time seemed to fly by in Ichigo's opinion and within the hour, Toshiro was organizing the papers that he had finished in a neat pile at the front of his desk so that the two could drop them off at the first division before they left.

"Hey Toshiro, come have a look at this…" Ichigo said suddenly, obvious layers of awe and confusion in his voice.

"What is it?" The smaller inquired as he pulled himself from his chair and slowly started to stride over towards where the strawberry was still standing awestruck by one of the windows.

"Look…" Ichigo muttered as he pulled Toshiro towards him and positioned him so that the smaller male was staring straight out the window so that he could watch the snow that was gently settling on the cold October earth. The longer the two boys stood by the window, locked in each other's arms, the harder the snow seemed to fall. It wasn't long before the previously gentle snowfall had morphed from a gentle snowfall to an almost straight out blizzard. Ichigo tore his eyes away from the scene unfolding before him to gaze down at his small boyfriend for a moment before asking, "Does it usually snow in Seireitei this early in the year?"

Toshiro shook his head. "I don't think that we have ever had snow fall this early in the year, at least not while I've been in the tenth division. The last time I can remember it snowing this early in the year was back when I was still living with granny in Junrinan. This one night, it was unusually cold and I had been with granny all day while Momo had been out playing with her friends. I remember feeling gloomy earlier that day because despite my protests, Momo insisted on dragging me into town and well you know… the group of kids Momo was playing with ditched me the second they could, and so I went back to the house. Granny decided to make my favorite tea, so in the end the day hadn't been as bad as most days." Toshiro's voice seemed far away despite the fact that the young captain remained securely in the strawberry's arms. "Momo barged into the house yelling about what seemed like a million things at once and when I told her to take a breath before she had a heart attack, she just laughed it off and dragged me outside before I had a change to protest. It really was something… it looked like the entire town had been covered in this gigantic blanket of snow. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sight, but it wasn't long before Momo started shivering and complained about how she was going to freeze to death. I don't know… it was such a weird feeling for me back then, but for the first time in a long time I felt like I belonged."

"This was before you knew about your reiatsu and affinity for snow and ice wasn't it?" Ichigo asked.

"Officially… but I think deep down inside, I always knew even if it took awhile for me to actually realize it." A calming silence lowered among the two before Toshiro let out a small chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing really… I was just thinking." Toshiro said quietly. "To this day, I sometimes think to myself about whether or not that snowstorm really was just a freak storm or if it was because I hadn't learned how to suppress my reiatsu yet and the weather simply reacted to my uncontrolled reiatsu…"

"Well, it wouldn't have surprised me, but it seems like it's a good memory nonetheless." Ichigo replied comfortingly as he continued to keep his small lover close. "Makes one think though…" Ichigo finally added.

"What do you mean, Ichigo?"

"Well, you did bring up the fact that you do have the power to sometimes control the weather…" The strawberry grinned as he started to run his hands through Toshiro's fluffy, white locks.

Suddenly, Toshiro became very stiff as he broke Ichigo's embrace and stepped out and away just far enough so that he face the strawberry, a distinct frown making its way back on the young captain's features. "I'm not sure I like what you're insinuating…"

"Oh, I'm not insinuating anything…" The strawberry grinned. "I'm just pointing out that on the exact night of a trip that took me forever to get you to agree to go on, there's a freak snowstorm in Seireitei, the likes of which hasn't occurred since before you joined the Gotei 13… seems like a pretty big coincidence don't you think?" Ichigo finished as he started jabbing the young captain playfully in the ribs.

"Are you saying that you think this is my doing…?" Toshiro asked as he crossed his arms, eyebrow raised and his piercing, not to mention annoyed, gaze coming to rest on the substitute shinigami before him.

"Well…" Ichigo murmured as he started playing nervously with his hands. He could tell just by looking at the young man before him that he was in a _very _delicate situation and depending on how exactly he chose to answer this question would be extremely instrumental as to how the rest of the night would play out.

"Well…?" Toshiro prompted as he carefully eyed his boyfriend, who had as of yet to complete his previous statement.

"I dunno." The strawberry shrugged as he tried to casually play off the issue at hand. "It's not important…"

"I quite disagree." Toshiro replied sternly. "Why don't you just tell me about how I, the cold and icy captain of the tenth division just called upon this freak snowstorm so that our trip would be ruined…? I know that's what you were about to say, so you might as well just come out with it."

"You know I didn't mean it like that, Shirou…"

"Sure… sure… Of course you didn't…" Toshiro replied rather ruthlessly.

"What is with you tonight, Toshiro? You know I was just joking…" Ichigo now thoroughly confused with his boyfriend's strange behavior. "I've joked about worse and you've always brushed it off because you know I love you and I would never intentionally hurt you like that. Why don't you just tell me what's wrong and I'll do whatever I can to fix it."

"Whatever… just forget it." Toshiro muttered as he attempted to walk past the strawberry towards the exit of the large office.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on there, where do you think you're going?" Ichigo asked as he held up his right arm, effectively thwarting the young captain's escape. "You were so insistent a minute ago, but now that the focus has shifted to you, you've taken a complete 180. I know because you're doing exactly what I was a moment ago. Why don't you just tell me what's really bothering you?"

"I told you, it's nothing…"

"Toshiro, whatever it is you know you can tell me, right?"

Silence overtook the room while Ichigo waited patiently for Toshiro to think about how to phrase what it was he actually wanted to say. Though, thinking about what you're going to say and actually saying it are two completely different feats in their own right. The young genius was entranced in though as his gaze shifted from Ichigo, to the floor and then the opposite corner of the room and back again. His mouth finally seemed to move and yet still no discernable sound seemed to leave the boy's lips.

"I can't help you if I can't hear you."

"I know…" Toshiro muttered, this time the point of being at least loud enough that Ichigo could make out what the young genius had said. Toshiro knew in a fairly general sense what exactly he wanted to say and yet still wasn't quite sure where he could start or even how he should start it. Deep down he knew he wanted to tell Ichigo… he really did, there was just the issue of actually putting these concerns he had been having into tangible words in which to communicate his predicament. There was a very precious timetable at stake here as well… he could for one, just remain silent and continue to let it bother him for the rest of the night, or he could just get it off his chest and have Ichigo help him through the rest of the evening. Toshiro then also feared that if he took too long to actually verbalize his thoughts, Ichigo would give up and then the young genius would feel awkward just randomly bringing it up at some point later in the night. _Here we go…_ Toshiro took a deep breath and took moment to carefully collect himself before what he had know had been inevitable all along. "It's just… well," Toshiro paused slightly before finally continuing, "You know how I mentioned to you earlier about the mission reports I was filling out?"

"Yea, you said because of the sheer amount of missions you have to brief people on and also finish the paperwork for completed ones was part of the reason you were feeling so stressed?" Ichigo replied as he thought back to not all that long ago.

"Well, I was truthful when I was saying that they had me stressed, but I never really went into detail as to why and was hoping that you wouldn't ask me any questions about it; which thankfully you didn't."

"Okay… so what's the real reason you've been so uptight all night?"

"It just has to do with the mission Yamamoto sent us on earlier this week…" Toshiro sighed.

"What about it?"

"Well, you know how we were sent to check out that small park which had been radiating a strange reiatsu signature, not to mention the abnormally high levels of hollow activity?"

"Yea, I remember going to that park a lot before my mother died…" Ichigo mused, lingering on the mass of memories flashing before his eyes for just the slightest of seconds before continuing. "I hope you don't think I'm trying to be insensitive, because you know I love you and want to support you, but would it be terrible if I said I don't remember anything particularly catastrophic happening while we were there?"

Toshiro wasted no time in shaking his head. "No, that's because you weren't there when it happened. You had gone off to find a bathroom at the time so it was just me."

Ichigo thought back to their mission earlier in the week, when they had gone to the park and after finding nothing conclusive decided to make a day of it so that going to the park wouldn't be a complete waste. He remembered it had been really cool in the morning, but then the weather spiked up into the 70s once the afternoon came around. Ichigo had brilliantly spend a majority of the time chugging water bottles after having to run around the park for more than an hour in his shihakusho, under the beaming light of the warm sun. "Okay… I get what you're saying, but what happened while I was searching for a bathroom?"

"Well… I just remember sitting on one of the benches nearby which just happened to be by the playground. After a few minutes, a group of women sat down on a pair of benches next to mine after their children had run off to play together on the playground. I just remember sitting there wondering how long it could possibly take you to find a restroom and go when something that they were talking about caught my attention." Toshiro's face fell instantly at the memory and Ichigo was trying to wrap his head around the fact that something a few women might have done could bother the young captain so much. "One of the ladies pointed over towards the border between the grass and the playground towards where a young boy was sitting off to the side by himself as he watched all the other kids play. I could hear the ladies beside me talking about that very boy. They talked about how odd he was and how none of the kids never really wanted much to do with him and even how it wasn't all that uncommon for him to be picked on by the other kids."

"Oh…" Ichigo muttered to himself when he finally realized why Toshiro had been so shaken up.

"I looked at that boy and then looked over towards where the rest of the kids were playing together and how they simply refused to acknowledge the other boy's existence, even when they ran right past him while playing tag." Toshiro sighed again. "The kid… the whole scene… it just reminded me of my rougher days back in Junrinan…"

"Shirou…" Ichigo breathed again, completely lost for words as he pulled the younger male closer so that his face was buried in his own chest and just held the boy there as he started to lightly kiss his lover's snow-white hair.

"I've told you before…" Toshiro mumbled into the material as he brought one of his hands up to firmly grasp the fabric in his fist. "What my life was like… no one except Granny or Momo ever looked twice at me let alone talked to me or usually even spent more than a few seconds in my presence. Either they feared me or they wasted no time in letting me know what I was… a freak." Toshiro buried his face back in Ichigo's chest as a single, pearly tear escaped, running down the young captain's face until making contact with the soft fabric of Ichigo's shihakusho.

"Well, that was then and this is now; don't think about what happened to you when you were younger. Yes, what they did was wrong; but lingering on those thoughts aren't going to do anything but hurt you. There's nothing you can do to change the past, but what you _can_ do is decide what will happen in the future." Ichigo whispered gently into his lover's ear as he continued to gently rub the boy's back in calming circles. The young prodigy made no motion to reply and yet Ichigo knew that his message had gotten through. "Hey," Ichigo started again as his gaze returned to the ever falling snow. "Why don't we just head out in the morning? Even if we did go, I doubt we'd get all that far. Why don't we just enjoy the night and see what things look like tomorrow?" A small, barely discernible nod from Toshiro gave Ichigo all the permission he needed to lead the frosty captain from their spot in front of the window back towards the exit of the office and ultimately the two soul reaper's shared bedroom. Despite the fact that Ichigo knew that his plans to steal away his young boyfriend for the week were probably dead in the water, he found that it didn't really matter where they went as long as he was with Toshiro.

"Ichigo…?" The quiet voice of the tenth division captain sounded as the pair silently made their way through the spiraling hallways of the barracks.

"What's up?"

A slight pause, and then, "Thanks…" Ichigo could swear at that moment, even though if one blinked, they would miss it, for the slightest second he could see a small, rare smile creep its way onto Toshiro's usually stoic features.

"Anytime, Shirou… anytime."

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><p><strong>AN: I had a pretty fun time writing this mainly because the whole snowstorm thing in October _actually_ happened to me so I could totally write from experience. The whole 30 degrees in the morning and 70 degrees in the afternoon is something that's been happening a lot lately too the past few weeks... but that's Virginia weather for you. :P I'm not sure if this is just in Va, but snow in October... that's just mind-blowing (for me at least). XD  
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**Reviews as always are very much appreciated!  
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